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It was odd really. For a rake, he seemed entirely regretful over their kisses, yet did he not kiss many women? Surely such a moment would hardly pass his notice?
Oh. Maybe she had just been an awful kisser. It did not really explain why he’d let it happen again but perhaps he hoped she’d improve. How awful.
“What is it?”
She shook her head. “Nothing.”
She moved past him to the side of the building and peered up the street. Perfect. The slats on this window were loose. She grabbed one and wriggled it until it gave way, then started on the next. Luke joined her and helped her remove the next two, creating a gap big enough to climb through.
“I have no idea why I am allowing this to happen,” he muttered.
“Help me up.”
“Anton is going to kill me.”
“Anton will never know. Now help me up.”
Hands to her waist, he lifted her with ease, allowing her to grab the edge of the window and swing one leg in. She ducked her head and slipped in.
Dust swirled about the air, lingering in the tiny streams of light let in by the gaps in the boarding. Luke followed after, grunting as he squeezed himself through the narrow gap. He straightened and came to stand next to her.
“Empty.”
“Yes.” The room offered no hint of what it used to be with only an empty fireplace to fill it. A damaged patch of wall indicated there had once been a mantlepiece around it, but it had likely been removed by unscrupulous characters at some point. Apparently they weren’t the only ones to have entered the building since its closure.
“Let us search the building.”
“Cassie...”
“We are here now.” She stepped out into the hallway. “We might as well do a thorough search,” she called back to him.
The man might be willing to give up at the first hurdle, but she was not. Their visit to the solicitors was not going to be for nothing.
Cassie tried the handle of the door in front of her to find it loose but sticking. Perhaps something of interest was behind it. She jiggled the knob and used her shoulder to shove the door open. The door swung shut with a thud behind her as she entered the room.
Nothing. Entirely empty. Not even a scrap of paper to hint at the occupants. She pinched the bridge of her nose. How could this be? Someone must have been here to accept the will’s bequest scarcely two months ago.
“Cassie?” called Luke from the other side of the door.
“In here,” she said. “But there's nothing.”
She gripped the doorknob and yanked. The knob tumbled to the floor, clattering on dusty floorboards. “Oh.”
“Cassie?”
She put a finger into the hole created and tried to ease open the door but she achieved nothing but a sore finger.
“Cassie?” The door thudded and she assumed Luke had tried to push it open from his side. But it did not budge.
“Um, Luke?”
“Yes.”
“It seems I am stuck.”
***
LUKE CLOSED HIS eyes briefly. He could be at Boodle’s. Or home. Or even in the arms of an attractive widow.
